After a year marked by student fighting and attacks on teachers, St. Paul Public Schools students will find new staffers dedicated to their mental and physical well-being when they head back to class next week.

When they wrapped up contentious negotiations over a new teacher contract in February, the district promised to create the equivalent of 30 new full-time positions to improve school climate.

All but 3.5 of those jobs have been filled, human resources director Laurin Cathey told the school board last week.

With input from school leaders, the district so far has hired:

11 counselors to be shared by 14 schools,

five social workers,

five school psychologists,

the equivalent of 5.5 full-time nurses.

Cathey said they still need to hire two more school psychologists and the equivalent of 1.5 counselors to fulfill the school staffing resolution the board passed.

The board agreed on a similar resolution two years earlier but the district left 10 positions open because they couldn’t find enough qualified applicants, especially for librarians. This time around, they built in more flexibility to ensure schools get the sort of help they want and jobs don’t go unfilled.

Union president Denise Rodriguez declined to talk about the new hires. She said she asked Cathey on Aug. 15 for an update on the positions but never heard back, and she has not seen his Tuesday presentation to the board.

“We haven’t been provided the information he provided,” Rodriguez said.

The two staffing resolutions will cost an estimated $3.14 million this school year.

Meanwhile, six schools will share $1 million this year to pilot the use of restorative practices in hopes of improving student behavior and cutting back on out-of-school suspensions. That too was a product of teacher contract talks.

Several schools last year dealt with frequent disruptions by students. The teachers took a preliminary step toward a strike vote in December after a Central High School student knocked a teacher unconscious in the lunchroom.

That teacher, John Ekblad, is suing the school district. Lawyers have met for 11 hours of settlement talks this summer but have yet to reach a deal.

The district reported a big increase in fights and suspensions for the first quarter of the school year. A year-end report is not yet available, spokeswoman Toya Stewart Downey said.

MANY TEACHING JOBS OPEN

With two weeks before school starts, the district still had dozens of teaching jobs open.

Cathey said unexpected resignations or retirements during the summer account for 20 of the 25 vacancies for traditional teaching positions. But the district has 28 additional vacancies for special-education teachers, who are hard to find.

Cathey said he’d reach out to former special-ed teachers who have left the district, but some of those jobs will remain open all school year.

“We will probably lag this number for most of the year, and our best effort to catch up is going to be (getting) ahead of the curve for next year’s recruiting process,” he said.

LATE START ON HIRING

Likewise, the district has yet to fill 60 teaching assistant positions. Typically, Cathey said, 30 of those jobs are vacant throughout the school year.

St. Paul school board member Steve Marchese

School board member Steve Marchese noted that much of the money the board returned to schools in favor of administrative funding cuts late in the budget process was expected to be spent on teaching assistants. Now, it appears much of that money will go unspent.

Cathey acknowledged the district got a late start on hiring because of uncertainty with the budget. Next spring, he said, they’ll start hiring sooner and hire more people in anticipation of others quitting.

Cathey added that it would be easier to hire teaching assistants if they paid them more and helped those who are interested to pursue a teaching license.

Josh has written about St. Paul public schools and higher education for the Pioneer Press since 2014, 11 years after the paper first published his byline as a University of Minnesota intern. He did a two-year stint on city government and crime in Austin, Minn., and spent seven years in Sioux Falls, S.D. covering crime and education, as well as editing. Josh was good at baseball once. Now he plays tennis against old men.

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Are those resignations really “unexpected” after teachers have repeatedly been assaulted and it’s clear the administration doesn’t have their backs? I wonder what happened to the substitute teacher who was ousted out of the SPPS for calling the police after being assaulted?

http://drdtking.blogspot.com Tom King

Just think how helpful it would have been both for kids and teachers had the previous Board not renewed Silva’s contract. Her passion to help kids must have been completely forgotten when she agreed to walk away with 3/4 of a million dollars. That’s a lot of helpers for our kids who won’t be hired. How can you claim you care about students and pull off a caper like this?

Speaking of teachers….Theo Olson decides to leave the SPPS and not disclose where he is going and then there is this post. The idiots mom approves and comments. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

Perhaps he should consider a restraining order and stalking charges against Rashad Turner.

Opinionsarejustthat

How about they move most of this staff (and their existing peers) to a special, “last chance” school. Pay them and all the teachers who work there big money and give them the chance to make a difference to these kids that society (and in many cases their parents) has failed to do. Get them out of the mainstream if they continue to disrupt the learning environment of everyone else. I don’t ever want to give up on a kid but any parent, if made to choose will always choose their kid over another.

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